More Theater details
Feb. 17th, 2009 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayAt Boskone, I was part of a staged reading of Jo Walton's "Tam Lin", a delightfully convoluted fanfic mixture of William Shakespeare, Bujold's Barrayar, and Pamela Dean's novel version. It's both an adaptation of the ballad and a sorta-kinda a sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
I played Robin Goodfellow, who is not quite as Puck-ish in this play as formerly (though he still has a great deal of silly business, including an infamous scene of ladders and flirtation). Though Janet-saving-Thomas is in some sense the central plot, Puck's growing world-weariness ends up being the critical element that brings the play to a (mostly) happy ending. Hence, I got to exercise my hamminess in both comical and tragical modes, and had a blast.
The play was co-directed by CHip and Davey, and also featured Jane Yolen as the Fairy Queen,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
negothick as the village wench who Robin falls in love with, and Michael/Christian as Thomas, among others.
The audience appeared to have a blast as well. Lots of laughs, thunderous applause at the end, and lots of direct personal praise. The author seemed amazed and pleased that I had managed to convey both the comedy and seriousness of the character as needed; I, in turn, thanked her for giving me such wonderful speeches to work with. Davey reminded me afterwards that the role had previously been performed by Mike Ford, and in tones which suggested that she thought I was a worthy successor, in at least this small way.
Now, on toherooftheage's production of Henry V, in which I will be playing Exeter, Fluellen, and probably miscellaneous bit parts. Early rehearsals are promising, and suggest it will be a really good show by the time we go live in June.
Interesting observation on Shakespearean writing: One of the hardest parts of working on Tam Lin was figuring out where to breathe. Robin has lots of very long, intricate sentences, which really do contain a single (if complex) thought, so ought not to be broken up by pauses. So I worked hard at putting in half-breaths unobtrusively where I could, which took a lot of experimentation. Fluellen in H5 also has lots of long sentences that clearly should not be broken up by pauses. But in our very first read-through, without any preparation, I was able to read them straight through with no difficulty at all. Fluellen's speech patterns include a lot of apparently-random interjections -- yet they are not nearly as random as they seem; they naturally enforce partial breaths on the person saying the line, at just the moments when he needs to do so. Yet another example of Shakespeare's subtle brilliance.
I played Robin Goodfellow, who is not quite as Puck-ish in this play as formerly (though he still has a great deal of silly business, including an infamous scene of ladders and flirtation). Though Janet-saving-Thomas is in some sense the central plot, Puck's growing world-weariness ends up being the critical element that brings the play to a (mostly) happy ending. Hence, I got to exercise my hamminess in both comical and tragical modes, and had a blast.
The play was co-directed by CHip and Davey, and also featured Jane Yolen as the Fairy Queen,
negothick as the village wench who Robin falls in love with, and Michael/Christian as Thomas, among others.The audience appeared to have a blast as well. Lots of laughs, thunderous applause at the end, and lots of direct personal praise. The author seemed amazed and pleased that I had managed to convey both the comedy and seriousness of the character as needed; I, in turn, thanked her for giving me such wonderful speeches to work with. Davey reminded me afterwards that the role had previously been performed by Mike Ford, and in tones which suggested that she thought I was a worthy successor, in at least this small way.
Now, on to
herooftheage's production of Henry V, in which I will be playing Exeter, Fluellen, and probably miscellaneous bit parts. Early rehearsals are promising, and suggest it will be a really good show by the time we go live in June.Interesting observation on Shakespearean writing: One of the hardest parts of working on Tam Lin was figuring out where to breathe. Robin has lots of very long, intricate sentences, which really do contain a single (if complex) thought, so ought not to be broken up by pauses. So I worked hard at putting in half-breaths unobtrusively where I could, which took a lot of experimentation. Fluellen in H5 also has lots of long sentences that clearly should not be broken up by pauses. But in our very first read-through, without any preparation, I was able to read them straight through with no difficulty at all. Fluellen's speech patterns include a lot of apparently-random interjections -- yet they are not nearly as random as they seem; they naturally enforce partial breaths on the person saying the line, at just the moments when he needs to do so. Yet another example of Shakespeare's subtle brilliance.